The course provides students with analytical tools and conceptual frameworks for an in-depth understanding of social and territorial polarisation processes. It focuses on the interplay between political and socio-economic dimensions that underpin spatial inequalities and segregation dynamics. Through theoretical discussion and empirical case studies, students will learn to critically assess how territorial exclusion and stigmatisation take shape in contemporary urban contexts.

Key topics addressed include:

• Definitions of concentration, polarisation, and territorial segregation;
• Concepts of ghetto, hyper-ghetto, and anti-ghetto;
• The different spatial scales of territorial polarisation;
• The significance and evolving nature of the centre–periphery axis;
• Residential concentration and spatial violence;
• Comparative models of segregation: North American, Northern European, and Southern European;
• Main drivers of (de)segregation: housing (e.g. housing policies, informal occupations), labour (e.g. agricultural ghettos), welfare (e.g. healthcare, education), and racialisation processes;
• The relationship between segregation and migrant background;
• Territorial stigmatisation: origins, symbolic agencies, and main socio-political effects;
• Structural violence and cultural responses: forms of resistance, opposition, and radicalisation (e.g. trap music, the ‘bad guy’ persona, Islamic identity);
• Public space and social exclusion: urban struggles, the rhetoric of decorum, and penal populism;
• Urban policies for marginalised areas: social mix, urban regeneration, and politique de la ville—with a focus on the limitations of sectoral interventions and the need for multidimensional, integrated approaches.

Theoretical concepts will be critically applied through the analysis of real-world case studies involving the spatial concentration and stigmatisation of minority communities.